MegamanEXE: The Alpha disaster
by Leo-Blazer
Summary: The events that take place in the third battle network game, one of the best games of the series in my opinion, altered by me somewhat. CHAPTER 6 UP! Please review! Please!
1. New year, new trouble What else is new?

**Megaman .exe: The Alpha Disaster**

**Disclaimer: All characters are property of Capcom.**

Ch.1

_The year is 200X. The world's machines are joined in a worldwide network. But there is a dark side to this convience as well: Computer viruses, and an increase in Netcrime. The virus lab at Scilab conducts research into ways of dealing with these viruses. Today, the students of ACDC Town in dencity, took a field trip to the Scilabs virus lab._

"So this is the new virus lab, huh...? This is even cooler then they said it was!" Said Lan. He had heard that they had renovated, but this was the first time he had seen it. Like usual, he wore his orange vest, blue headband and black shorts.

"Lan!" piped a voice from his pocket. It had come from his net navi, Megaman. He wore a black bodysuit, blue gloves and boots and a blue helmet with yellow patches on it. The icon on his chest was the same as the one on lans headband. "Your susspose to be paying attention! We're on a field trip! Everyone else is!"

"I know. But don' t you think this is cool?"

"Well...ya...but you should still pay attention!

Just then, the teacher, Ms Mari, called to the students. "Everyone! Listen up! The nice people of Scilab are about to teach us about virus busting."

In a matter of moments, all of the a students had crowded together infront of a scientist. Lan, Maylu, Dex and Yai were all together at the back. Yai then leaned over and whispered,"Hey you guys wanna meet up at my homepage later?" to the others. They all answered before the teacher noticed and began to listen to the Scilab scientist.

"Hello everyone! We are glad to have everyone here today. If you could all jack into the panels infront of you, we could get started."

Everyone pulled out their PETs and prepared to jack in:

"Jack in! Megaman! Power up!"

"Jack in! Roll! Power up!"

"Jack in! Gutsman! Power up!"

"Jack in! Glide! Power up!"

"Jack in! Normalnavi! Power up!"

In a flash of light, all the navis appeared in the computer. First Megaman, then Roll, Maylus cute female navi, next Gutsman, Dex's strong, metal navi, Yais butler navi, Glide and about a dozen normal navis. An instructor navi appeared infront of them all once they had all jacked in.

Before he even said anything, a mettaur virus for each of them appeared behind him.

"Alright, who wants to go first?"

"Hey lan, why don't we go first?"

"Alright! Lets go!"

With that, one of the mettaur viruses stepped forward. It picked up its pickaxe and, before megaman could react, sent a shockwave straight at him.

Quickly, lan pulled out one of his chips and slotted it into his PET. "Gaurd1! Download!"

Once the chip had been registered, a shield appeared infront of megaman and blocked the attack.

"Widesword, Areagrab! Double download!" A Widesword appeared on megamans arm and the Areagrab allowed him to jump forward and slash the mettaur, deleting it.

Clap,clap,clap "Excellent! Flawless busting! Alright, any more volunteers?"

A few minutes later, everyone had gone. Roll had used her speed to attack the virus before it could react, Glide quickly wiped out the virus thanks to Yais rare chips, Gutsman had some trouble, missing his target the first...two dozen times before finally striking it and the Normal navis used a variety of chips to beat the mettaurs. The whole time, the instructor gave tips, pointed out mistakes and helped them all before they were done.

"That concludes the tour! I hope you all enjoyed it."

"Now, it's time for us to return to school. Don't forget to thank the nice scientists for the tour."

A loud "Thank you" erupted from the class as they left the virus lab.

"Later…"

"Tonight's assignment is to write a report on the virus lab and save it on a disk. The disk is due tomorrow. Anyone not hand theirs in has to clean the bathrooms for a week. That means you Lan and Dex!"

Lan and Dex both blushed as the whole class began to laugh at them.

"That includes everyone else too!"

The laughing stopped as everyone groaned. The bell suddenly rang, putting a stop to any further embarrassment. Everyone piled out the door, eager to get home, some forgetting about their assignment, others worried that they would have to clean the bathrooms for a week.

Lan snapped on his rollerblades and headed to the park, where he and his friends had agreed to discuss their plans for the night.

* * *

"Whats taking them so long?" 

Lan had been waiting for them for over 30 minutes. He could of used the time chip shopping, but Higsby was chip hunting in Neotopia...again. So for half an hour, he had been waiting in the park, bored.

"Lan, be patient."

"I can't stand it! If they don't come soon, I'm..."

"Hey Lan!" a suddenly call not only cut lan off, but also diverted his attention.

He turned to the source of the sound and saw Maylu and the rest his friends arriving, finaly.

"Your late!" was Lan's only response.

"Sorry! We got held up! But we're here now, so what's the problem?"

"You guys know I hate to wait!"

"All right, all right!" cut in Yai, "Lets decide when go to my homepage."

"Why don't we meet..."

"Excuse me!" Dex was cut off as a man in a cowboy hat came running up to them.

"Who are you?" Dex asked rather rudely.

"Sorry to bother you. I'm Saramana from the Dencity TV station."

At the mention of the Tv station, Yai let out a glee of delight.

"The Dencity TV station! Don't tell me you've come to make me a star! Ahh...my time has come!"

"Uhhh...not exactly" he said with an air of confusion in his voice."Ya see.. We at the Tv station are hosting a grand battle tournament called The N1 Grand Prix!"

Everyone was excited, except for Yai who said, rather saddly,"You mean I haven't been selected to be tv star?"

"Well, the N1 Grand Prix will be broadcast worldwide! So this could be your first step to fame and fortune!" This proved to lighten Yai's mood.

"If you wish to enter, the sign up and Prelims are in ACDC square. Now if you'll excuse me, I must be off." With that, he ran off.

"I'm gonna enter for sure! Right Gutsman?"

"Guts, Guts, Guts!" Gutsman began to beat his hands against his chest like a gorilla, which was what he resembled.

"Lets enter too!" cheerfully exclamed Roll.

"Alright. We'll enter too. What about you Lan?"

"Well I'm entering for sure! Me and megaman are gonna win this!" Said lan, with an air of confidence.

"In your dreams!" Said Yai snobbishly. "This could be my chance to go big and become a star! No one will stand in my way, right Glide!"

"As miss Yai wishes, I will do my best."

Dex suddenly ran off, yelling behind him "I'm gonna sign up and get ahead of you all!"

With that, everyone scattered, running home so they could sign up.

Lan quickly ran in his house, running past his mom who asked" How was your trip to Scilab?"

He quickly answered "Okay..." Before he ran up to his room and shut the door. He then ran up to his computer and pulled out his PET.

"Lets do it megaman! Jack in! Megaman! Powerup!"

In a flash of blue light, megaman appeared in the square, where the first thing he saw was a huge line up leading to the center of the square. "This could take a while..."

After 45 minutes, megaman had finaly reached the front of the line to sign up.

"Name and Operator?" asked the sign-up navi.

"Megaman and Lan Hikari."

Once the navi had written down the information, she handed him data with a number on it. "Your combatant #254. Show this data to the green navi over there to begin your test."

_#254!?! These prelims must be hard to let this many people enter. _thought megaman.

With the data in hand, he headed over to the green navi to start the prelims.

"Alright, lets start. The first part is a series of questions. You must get at two out of three to advance. Alright! First Question: Red means stop. True or false?"

Lan almost fell over laughing. "Is he serious? What an easy question! Of course red means stop!"

"Correct! Next question: A ton of lead is heavier then a ton of feathers. True or false?"

"Lets see...Lead is heavy and feathers are light...so I would say...True!"

A loud buzzing could be heard as he said his answer. "Wrong! A ton of lead is not heavier then a ton of feathers!"

"WHAT?!?"

"Last question: If you add every number from 1-10, it equals 50. True or false?"

"Uh..let's see..1+23+36.."

"Ten seconds left to answer!"

Lan began to panic as he hurried to answer."Uh...15+621+728.."

"Five seconds! 4,.."

"...36+945+10..."

" 3,2.."

"..55!"

"..1..."

"False! The answer is False!!!"

"Correct! You have passed round 1!

"Congratulations. You have passed part one of the prelims...now it's time for part two.." The judge navi snickered as he finished his sentence.

The sudden snicker worried megaman, but he didn't have time to think about it as the navi began the next part of the prelim..

"The next part of the prelims is a survival test. If you can...survive against three rounds of viruses, you will have passed the prelims."

"Alright! This'll be a snap!" stated Lan, very confidently.

Megaman was still worried about the sudden change in the navi's personality, but he didn't tell Lan. Knowing him, he would of probally said he was paranoid.

"Ok..now to start battle 1!" With that, three Lv2 mettaurs appeared infront of him. They all had their pickax raised, ready to attack. "Begin!"

"Spreader! Download!

"Spreader!" A gun appeared on megaman's arm and fired off one shot, which shattered on contact with the first mettaur. The other mettaurs were prepared as the hid under their helmets to avoid the shrapnel.

"Megaman! We'll need to defeat the first one to attack the other two!"

"Got it! Mega buster!" His arm then transformed into a laser cannon type weapon and fired a plasma shot at the mettaur as he was about to attack, stunning it.

Quickly, Lan pulled out a battlechip before the virus could react back.

"Aquasword! Download!" Once the PET hand registered the chip, a water tank appeared on megaman's arm, then a blade of water shot out of the tank.

"Aquasword!" Swinging the sword, a huge wave swept forward, deleting the first virus before taking out the second as it raised it's helmet to attack.

"Two down, one to go! Time to finish this megaman! Hi-cannon!"

A cannon virus appeared in front of megaman. It took aim at the mettaur, then fired a volley of shots at the mettaur, finishing it off.

"Round one over! Now for round two!"

This time, three spikeys appeared infront of him. They were all snarling very fiercely.

"This will be easy to pass with my aquasword! Aquasw..."

"One thing I forget to mention.." interupted the judge navi, startling megaman and causing him to almost fall over.

"You cannot use the same chip twice. Meaning you cannot use your aquasword again in this series of battles."

"Aw man.." whined Lan "Looks like we'll have to think of something else."

The spikeys suddenly stood perfectly still and fire could be seen coming out of the side of their mouths.

"We'd better think fast Lan...the spikeys are preparing to attack!"

As the words passed his lips, the spikeys all fired of fireballs at megaman Megaman braced for inpact as the fireballs flew straight towards him.

Suddenly, a dome of light appeared infornt of megaman, blocking the fireballs.

"Thanks for the barrier Lan, and not a moment too soon!"

"Boomerrang! Download! Knock them out in one shot!" A metal boomerrang appeared in megaman's hand. Bringing his arm back, he threw the boomerang at the spikeys, beating all three of them, before returning to him.

"Battle two over! Now for the final round!"

This time, three different viruses appeared in front of him: a Lv2 spikey, a ratton and a swordy.

"Battle three...BEGIN!"

The moment the battle begins, all three viruses attack at once: the spikey shoots a fireball, the ratton shoots a rat bomb and the swordy lunges forward to attack.

"Airshoes! Download! Jets appeared on megaman's boots, allowing him to jump over the attack. Suddenly, the spikey shot another fireball at megaman. Being in mid air, he was unable to dodge and was blown back by the blast, hitting the ground with a loud THUD!

Before he had a chance to get up, the ratton fired of a rat bomb, knocking him back again and right into the swordy, who slashed him with its widesword, causing him to scream in pain.

"Megaman!!!"

"Lan...send me...something..." megaman struggles to say through the pain.

Quickly, lan pulls out a chip and slots it in, when the swordy lunges forward and stabs it's sword down, impaling megaman.

The swordy may of been surprised to see...a smile appear on megaman's face. Suddenly, a cloud of smoke came from megaman and when the smoke clears, a limp doll is impaled instead. The virus looked up and saw megaman above them,holding three shurikens.

"Iahhhhhhh!!!" calling out a battle cry, he hurtles a shuriken at each virus, taking them all out. Panting and covered in bruises, megaman lands and sees the judge smiling.

"Congratulations! You have passed the prelims! We will notify you of the next round later. Good luck!"

With that, megaman limps out of the square, where he meets up with Glide, Roll and Gutsman. The moment they see him, Roll rushes up to him, worried.

"Megaman! Are you ok?"

Before he could answer, Roll created a pink ball in her palm and pressed it into his icon, healing him completely.

"Better?"

"Much. Thanks Roll!"

"What happened?" asked Glide.

"The prelims were a little tougher then I thought. I barely survived the "survival" battles. Which reminds me, how did you all do?"

"I was able to pass thanks to miss Yai's operating."

"...and rare chips...guts.." Gutsman stated under his breath. "I easily beat the prelims! Guts, guts!" gloated Gutsman.

"I was somehow able to pass the prelims." Roll said, rather cheerfully.

"Looks like we all passed the prelims!" They all did a group cheer, before Yai decided to change the subject.

"Its almost time for dinner. Why don't we meet at my homepage at 8?"

Everyone agreed.

Glide then handed them all a passcode. "Use this to enter miss Yai's homepage. Now if you'll excuse me, I must be off."

Once Glide had logged out, they all decided to follow suit and soon, they had all logged out to get something to eat.


	2. Flashout!

**Flashout!**

**Disclaime: All characters are property of Capcom.**

Once Lan had eaten dinner, he headed back to his room to jack in.

"Jack in! Megaman! Power up!"

In a flash of blue light, megaman appeared at the link to Yai's homepage, which resembled a large medieval door with many locks. Holding out the passcode, the many locks began to open and before long, the door swung open, allowing him entry.

In Yai's homepage, he saw that her wallpaper had changed to show many yellow rubber duckies. She was constantly changing her wallpaper, but they always looked better then the last.

He also saw that Glide, Roll and Gutsman were all waiting for him. He ran up to them and began to say hello. When he reached Glide, he asked, "What's with the door to your homepage? It's kinda creepy."

Glide smiled and answered " The top of the line security system. Only the best for miss Yai!"

"I also noticed that Yai has changed her wallpaper again. What was the reason for this?" asked Roll.

This time, Yai answered," I changed my wallpaper to this because I grew tired of my last one and thought this one was cute, that's all!"

"Miss Yai! Your manners!"

Changing the subject, megaman asked, "So, what was the reason for meeting at your homepage for anyway?"

"I was wondering the same thing too."

"Me too, guts"

"Miss Yai wanted to meet everyone here for a fun chat, that's all." Informed Glide. "Speaking of which, we should start about now."

(_One hour later…)_

Yai let out a loud yawn. "I think it's about time we head in."

"Me too. By the way Lan, did you finish the assignment for tomorrow?" asked Maylu?

"AAAH!" exclaimed Lan, suddenly remembering the assignment.

"Sorry Lan, I forgot too."

"Don't worry megaman, I'm sure this assignment will be a snap!"

Suddenly, a loud yell came from Dex.

"What's wrong?" asked Lan

"My disk! I left it at school! Oh no, oh no, oh no!"

"Well, it looks like you'll be cleaning the toilets for the next week!" Joked Lan.

"Lan, this is serious! Why don't we just go back and get it?" asked Maylu.

"At school? At night? Sounds cool! Lets go!" exclaimed Yai.

"But miss Yai, it could be dangerous!" warned Glide.

"I don't care Glide! We're going and that's that! Got it?"

"Yes miss Yai…."

"I hear the school is haunted at night. If anyone enters, then…BOO!"

Maylu screamed, Causing Roll to laugh from her little joke.

"Don't do that Roll! You know I hate ghosts!"

"G-G-G-GHOSTS!" exclaimed Dex, totally afraid.

"What's the matter Dex?" taunted Lan "Your not AFRAID are you?"

"Well I…"

"No he is not!" cut in Gitsman "Dex isn't afraid of anything! He's got Guts! Right Dex!"

"R-R-Right…."

"Ok then! Lets all meet in front of the school in 10 minutes!" exclaimed Yai, with adventure in her voice.

Once they all agreed, Dex was very reluctant, they all jacked out.

"Lets get going."

"Wait! Are you forgetting about Mom? How are we going to get past her?" asked Megaman.

"I'll be very quiet and if she does notice me, I'll just wing it."

"Oh ya, that should work.." Megaman said sarcastically.

Quietly, Lan sneaked downstairs, past his mom and had almost made it to the door when….

"Lan!"

Lan stopped dead as he heard his mom's voice. He slowly turned around and saw that she had a mad/worried look on her face. "Where do you think your going at such a late hour?"

"Well..uh.." he had to think of something fast "Dex e-mailed me and asked me to help him with his assignment, since he's having trouble with it." Lan put on his best "I'm telling the truth, honestly" smile and hoped his mom would believe it.

"Alright, since it's for school. But don't stay out too late okay?"

"Ok." Was Lan's answer as he ran out the door and breathed a sigh of relief.

"That was close."

He quickly ran to the school, which was a quick walk away from his house, and saw all his friends were already there.

"Alright, I'm here." He called to his friends, "Lets go in."

"We can't. The doors locked." Explained Maylu.

"But the lock is connected to the Internet." Said Yai in her "I know everything" voice. "Someone will have to jack in and deactivate the electric lock."

"I'll do it." Replied Lan.

"Be careful Lan. I've heard that an ultra powerful guard navi protects the lock."

"Don't worry Maylu. This will be easy!"

With that, he pulled out his PET and pointed it at the jack in sensor.

"Jack in! Megaman! Power-up!"

Once Megaman was in the system, he headed for the lock program. What he saw was a giant key shaped data, surrounded by a glowing ring. Standing next to it was a green normal navi with a pair of swords on its back.

"Megaman, be careful! He's suppose to be extremely tough!"

"Right!" He hid behind a stream of data to observe the navi. After s few moments, he noticed something.

_No way..he can't be…._

Slowly, Megaman stepped out from behind the data and walked towards the navi.

"Megaman! What are you doing!?!"

Megaman was soon standing infront of the navi. He then brought his hand up and…poked the navi in the forehead.

"Lan..I think he's…sleeping."

"………Your….joking right?" Lan was in disbelief.

"Nope. I can hear him breathing. Listen."

Just as Megaman said, Lan could hear "Zzzzzzzzzz" coming from the navi.

"Huh. Some ultimate navi he is. Let's unlock and get out of here."

"Got ya."

Megaman stepped up to the giant key and pressed several buttons on the panel infront of it. Once he was done, the key began to rotate clockwise. Once it had finished rotating, it made a loud "CLANG ,CLUNK!" noise.

"Zzzzzz…Huh what….Hey!"

Lan and Megaman both froze as the loud noise woke the guard navi.

"Who's….there?….huh….Zzzzzzzz."

They both breathed a sigh of relief as the navi went back to sleep.

"Man! That was scary! Lan! Is the door unlocked?"

"Ya. Time to jack out."

"Ok."

_Megaman Jacking out_

Lan turns around to everyone heading in without him.

"Hey guys! Wait for me!"

"Well, we made into the school. Now what?" asked Lan.

"The last place I remember having my disk was in our home room."

"Then lets go!" Yai had begun to head on without them.

Once they caught up, they all headed to their homeroom, which was, surprisingly, unlocked.

"I thought they locked all the doors before leaving." wondered Maylu.

"I guess not."

"Ahh! I can't find it!" yelled Dex.

"Did you check your desk?" asked Lan.

"Of course I did! It's not there!"

"Wait a minute, weren't you fooling around near the lockers earlier today?" suggested Maylu.

"..And doodling on the blackboard?"

"..And hanging around the animal cages?" added Lan.

**"Flashbacks"**

_Dex is seen opening and closing the lockers, looking for something. Not finding it, he unlocks his own locker and begins to rummage through it. Again, not finding what he wanted, he closes and locks his locker again before walking off._

_Dex is busy doodling an image of Gutsman. He has filled the whole bottom of the board with doodles and has almost used up all the chalk. He hears footsteps, so he quickly erases the board, and puts the chalk back._

_Dex opens up the fishtank and drops in a few flakes of fish food, which the fish quickly eat. He then checks the hamsters water, then makes sure the turtle has enough food before closing the cages and fishtank before leaving._

**"End of flashbacks"**

"ARRRG! It could be any where!" Dex had worry in his voice.

"Ok...why don't we split up and look everywhere we know it could be?" suggested Maylu.

"Good idea Maylu! I'll look near the lockers."

"I'll look near the animal cages."

"Guess I'll look at the blackboard. Don't worry Dex, we'll find it!"

With that, Yai headed to the lockers, Maylu went to search near the blackboard and Lan began to look around the animal cages. Dex waited at his desk while they all searched.

Lan first checked in the hamster cage. he dug under the dirt and didn't find anything. He then looked in the turtle cage and again didn't find it. He lastly looked around the fish tank. He was about to give up, when he saw something sticking out from the tank. He was able to get it out from under the tank and saw that it was...Dex's data disk!

"It's not near the lockers."

"It's not near the blackboard. Any luck Lan?"

"You mean this?" Lan handed the disk to Dex.

"My disk! You found it! Thanks you guys!"

"Alright, lets go home now." Yai said, rather impatiently.

click

"Huh? Did you guys hear that?"

"Hear what Yai?" asked Maylu.

"Hey, you guys coming or what!?!" Lan and Dex had already reached the door and were about to leave without them.

"We're coming Lan!"

All four of them then made their way down the stairs and headed straight for the doors. They were almost there when…

Click, clang!

"There's that noise again! I knew I wasn't imagining it!"

"It's coming from the Teachers lounge!"

"What if it's a burglar?"

"What could they possibly hope to steal from a school?" pointed out Lan at Dex's question.

"Let's check it out!"

"But, miss Yai.." But Yai wasn't listening to him.

With Yai in front, they all headed down the hall towards the teacher's lounge. Once they had reached the door and could hear the sound of someone talking. They were, unable though, to hear what the burglar was saying.

"Alright! Lets go!"

"Wait! I'll go in. you guys stay here."

"But Lan…"

'If we run into any trouble, Megaman and me can handle it. I don't want you guys to be pulled into this."

Although they all wanted to help, they knew that he was right. With that, Lan opened the door and stepped in. He gasped at what he saw. The teachers lounge had everything! T.vs, computers, vending machines and many other luxuries. The only thing that wasn't in It..was a criminal.

"Where is he?"

Suddenly, a loud noise came from the other end of the room. It sounded like victory.

"Lan! He's in the principals office!"

Lan ran to the door and was about to enter, when Dex, Yai and Maylu ran past him into the office. Surprised, he quickly ran in after them.

"Hold it right there!"

Hearing Dex's out burst, he turns around. He looked like a man who studied some kind of martial arts. His hair was tied into a braid, he wore a long sleeved shirt and a pair of pants normally only seen on martial arts masters. He also had a hardened, unemotional look on his face.

"Kids?!? They saw me!?! No one must see me!!"

It was at this point that Lan came in.

"Guys! What are you doing? I told you guys to wait outside!"

"Don't worry Lan! We can handle this!" Maylu assured him.

"Lan!?!" The criminal's face seemed to light up at the mention of the name. "The Lan? Oh, this is my lucky day!"

"Why is that?" asked Lan.

'Your name is at the top of my organization's blacklist. If I kill you and your navi, my boss will give me a huge raise!"

Maylu was shocked at this. "Ki….kill Lan!?!. We won't let you! Come on guys, let's stop him!"

"You're in my way! Flashman! Deal with them!"

Suddenly, the computer screen lit up and a flash of white light shot out, hitting Dex, Yai and Maylu.

"Guys!"

"Uuugg….I'm a train!" Dex suddenly ran out of the room, chugging like a train.

"I'm a swan!" Yai began to twirl like a ballerina, saying "Pretty, pretty" over and over again, following Dex out the door.

"Lan..run….uggg.." Maylu lurched forward like a zombie and left the room.

"What did you do to them!?!"

"I just hit them with Flashman's hypno flash. As long as he exists, they will remain hypnotized! Now, You're next!"

"Run Lan!!"

Lan ran from the room, just as the hypno flash, shot from the screen.

"He got away. No problem. I got the tetracode and he will surely return to help his friends. Flashman! Stay here and destroy Lan and Megaman!"

Meanwhile, Lan had run from the room and went to find everyone. Halfway down the hall, his PET began to beep.

"Lan! It's Roll!

"Roll??" Lan quickly grabbed his PET and saw that it was, indeed, Roll.

"Oh Lan! You're ok!"

"Roll, where is everyone? Are they ok?"

"Apart from being hypnotized, their fine. They all wondered into one of the homerooms. Dex's running around in circles, Yai is spinning like a top and Maylu's just walking around like a sleep walker."

"Good. I'm glad they're safe. Now we need to go back and defeat that guy's navi. Come on Megaman!"

"Wait!"

"What is it roll?"

"Take this with you." Chip data suddenly appeared on the screen. Pulling out a blank chip, Lan slotted it in and downloaded the chip data. It was a Roll mega chip.

"Thanks Roll."

"Don't mention it. Just please, help Maylu and the others!" With that said, she ended the call.

"You heard her Megaman! Lets go and beat this guy and save our friends!"

"There has to be something in this school that'll help us!"

Lan had spent the last 20 minutes looking for something that could block the hypno flash attack. He had looked in almost every room in the school and still not find anything. He was currently looking in the room next to his.

"There has to be some...AHHH!"

"Lan! What's wrong?"

"Ow...nothing. I just tripped on this..unbrella? What's an unbrella doing here anyway?"

"Someone must of left it her...that's it!!"

"What's it?"

"The unbrella is the solution to our problem!" Megaman informed him "We can use it to block the hypno flash!"

"Great idea!"

With the unbrella in hand, Lan ran down the stairs to the teachers lounge. With the intent of saving his friends, Lan ran into the principal's office. The moment he entered, the computer screen began to glow.

"Lan! Now!"

Lan quickly opened the unbrella and put it out infront of him. The unbrella blocked the hypno flash completely, allowing Lan to jack into the computer.

"Jack in! Megaman! Powerup!"

In seconds, Megaman entered the system. The moment he did, he got hit in the back with an electric shock. Turning around, he saw bunny, hornet, killereye and elecball viruses surrounded him.

"This place is crawling with elec viruses!"

"I have just the thing to take them out. Lance battlechip in! Download!"

Spikes of bamboo suddenly shot out of the ground, taking out most of the viruses. The remaining viruses retaliated with zaprings and thunderballs.

"Barrier!" A barrier surrounded Megaman as Lan slotted in the chip, protecting him from the viruses' attack.

"Tornado, Flamesword, download!" a fiery sword appeared on megaman's arm as he began to spin around, creating a tornado that headed straight for the viruses. The combo was able to delete the rest of the viruses.

"That's all of them. Now lets find that guys navi!"

"Flash bulb!" Before either of them could react, four generators appeared and began to electrocute Megaman.

"What was that!"

"You were looking for me?" Suddenly, a navi appeared behind Megaman. He had blue boots and blue armor. There was a yellow bulb on each of his shoulders and on the top of his head. His body suit resembled what his operator had been wearing and instead of an icon, he just had a large dent in the center of his armor, like it had been torn out.

By now, the generators had shut down and had disappeared. "Who are you!"

"My name is Flashman. I have orders to destroy you and your navi." He spoke in a hollow, unemotional tone.

"Release my friends from your hypnosis!" order Lan.

"That, I cannot do. The only way to free them is to delete me. If you wish to free your friends, then you must fight me."

"Looks like we don't have a choice Lan. We have to beat this guy to free everyone!"

"Beat me? Don't make me laugh. Neon light!"

A yellow orb appeared in Flashman's hand, which he presses to the ground, causing many more glowing orbs to appear and head straight for Megaman.

"Airshoes! Download!" Jets appeared on Megaman's boots, allowing him to jump over the orbs. The orbs continue to travel until they crash into a wall, exploding on contact.

"Whoa. Better watch out for those. Bamboosword! Areasteal! Download!"

A green hilt appears on megaman's arm and a glowing green blade shoots out. Using the Areasteal, he teleports till he is infront of Flashman and brings his sword down. Suddenly, a blade shoots out Flashman's glove, blocking the bamboo sword.

"You thought you would beat me by using my weakness. You are sadly mistaken."

Grabbing on to the sword, he squeezed the sword until it snapped in two. Using his neon light, he blows megaman back, causing noticeable damage.

"Megaman! Are you ok?"

"Ya…I think so…"

"Hahaha. "This" is the legendary Megaman! Don't make me laugh."

"This guys tough! Try this! Boomer, Download!"

The chip creates a boomerang in his hand. Bringing his arm back, he sends it flying towards Flashman. The moment the boomerang is about to hit, he suddenly disappeared!

"Where'd he go?" He didn't have to wait long for the answer, as a blur suddenly appeared behind him.

"Behind you!"

"Huh?" Before he even has time to turn around, he is struck from behind by another neon light attack. The force of the attack blows him back.

"I had enough fooling around. It's time to end this." Another ball of energy appears in Flashman's hand but this time, it isn't solid like the neon light.

"Spark arm!!" Bringing the ball down, he slams it into the ground, causing blasts of electricity to travel through the floor towards Megaman.

Quickly, Lan slotted in an areasteal, teleporting megaman away from the blast, just as they collided.

"Phew. That was close." However, one of the streams continued to travel, until it slammed into megaman, blowing him back and paralyzing him from the spark..

"So you dodge my spark palm. Now I guess I'll have to defeat you the old fashion way." The blade shoots out of his gauntlet as he begins to make his way towards megaman.

Lan began to search through his folder, franticly looking for something that could help Megaman. He looks over every chip, until his eyes fall upon one unparticular.

The Roll chip.

Meanwhile, Flashman had made his way to Megaman, who was still paralyzed by the spark palm. "Time to put you out of your misery."

"Helps on the way! Roll megachip! Download!"

Suddenly, a pink orb flew forward, knocking Flashman back. The orb began to take form, until it had transformed into Roll.

"Ugh..What trickery is this?"

He didn't have time to wonder that, as the Roll suddenly teleported infront of him, and began to whip him with her antennae. After she had whipped him about 20 or so times, she once again transformed into a glowing orb and flew towards Megaman. Once the orb reached him, it disappeared and he was surrounded by a pink aura. Suddenly, his HP suddenly shot up, the orb healing him.

"Thanks Lan."

"You should really thank Roll."

Flashman had recovered from the sudden whipping, and was preparing a neon light attack. "You may have caught me off guard, but your only delaying the inevitable! Neon light!"

"This time we're ready! Guard, Download!" A circular shield appeared infront of him, absorbing the attack and sending a shockwave flying back. Flashman quickly disappeared, just as Megaman was armed with a widesword. The moment Flashman appeared behind him, he spun around, slashing Flashman across the chest. Before Flashman had time to react, Megaman brought up his buster and began to at close range.

"Keep at it!" Flashman continued to be blasted, before the barrel of the gun began to glow brightly.

"Charge shot!" The shot was fired so close, that Flashman was sent flying, causing noticeable damage on his armor. The shot was so powerful, that he was sent back very far and when he did hit the ground, he skidded another few feet.

"That's it. Now I'm mad!"

Angered, he formed a spark ball in both hands.

"Ultimate spark palm!!!"

Slamming both orbs into the ground, a huge shockwave of lightning shot forward at an incredible pace.

"Uh..Lan!!"

"Don't worry! Use this! Prism, Download!"

A tiny diamond appeared in his hand. He then threw it as hard as he could. The moment the diamond left his hand, it increased in size, meeting the spark palm head on. The prism absorbed the attack, and redirected it towards Flashman. Flashman was so enraged, he didn't notice the blast until it struck him in the chest.

"ARRRG!!!!" The force of the blast caused a cloud of smoke to cover the area. Soon, the smoke began to clear, and what saw made them gasp in disbelief.

Flashman was damaged, but still standing. The blast had shot completely through his armor, creating an enormous hole. Cracks ran up the rest of his armor, his bulbs had been cracked, including the one on his head. His arms in legs were covered in wounds, all leaking data.

"Impossible! He got hit with his most powerful attack! How can he still be standing!"

Suddenly, a window opened up and the face of Flashman's operator appeared .

"It appears you have lost. You know the rules of the organization."

Flashman began to gasp as he tried to speak. "Yes…sir.. Rule #56: Do not be deleted, even when deleted in battle!"

Using all his strength, he stood up. He formed two glowing orbs in his hands and raised them above his head.

"Hehehe…I may of lost…but you will not leave here!"

"Megaman! Brace yourself!"

"SHINING BROWSER CRUSHER!"

Like an atomic bomb, Flashman exploded, sending a huge blast of light through the entire system. The blast struck Megaman with such force, pain shot through his entire body, forcing him on one knee. Moments later, the blast subsided.

"Hahaha! That flash is the beacon of disaster!" With that, the line was cut.

"Megaman! Are you okay?"

"I ….think so…"

"Whatever that blast was suppose to do, it didn't."

"I guess. Wait, what about everyone else!"

"Oh yeah! Jack out! We need to see if everyone's okay!"

The moment he jacked out, Lan ran to his homeroom as fast he could to see if they were okay. He ran into the room just as everyone was coming out of a daze.

"Uhhh…what's going on?"

"Your all okay! The hypnotism wore off after all!"

"We were hypnotized?" asked Yai in disbelief.

"Thanks for saving us Lan."

"I should actually be thanking you Maylu."

"Huh?"

"Hey! We got Dex's disk, so lets go home." Yai sounded rather impatient.

"Yeah. Let's go home. I'm tired!"

"Hey Lan, what do you think that guy meant about a "Beacon of disaster"?"

"It's probably nothing. Lets get going!"

"Right…."

_**End of chapter**_


	3. Got, Guts, Guts, Guts?

**Got guts, guts, guts?**

**Disclaimer: All characters are propety of CAPCOM.**

Lan had just dropped Maylu and Yai off at their houses, dex had gone on his own, and was heading home, when his PET beeped.

"Huh? What could that be?"

"Lan, it's mail...from Dex."

"Dex? Why would he be mailing me now? Anyway, what's it say?"

"All it says is: "Meet me in the park."."

"I wonder what he could want."

Several minutes later, Lan arrived at the park. Dex was already waiting for him.

"Well, I'm here. What is it?"

"...Netbattle me.."

"What? Why?"

"Back there..I was so helpless! I couldn't do anything to help! I need something to take my mind off it. Battle me!"

"O...k then." Lan was very relucant to battle him. He slowly pulled out his PET and prepared to battle. They were going to use the squirrel statue comp as their battle field.

"Jack in! Megaman! Power-up!"

"Jack in! Gutsman! Power-up!"

In a flash, both navis appeared in squirrle comp. Both took their battle stances as they prepared to battle.

"Lan, you sure you want to do this?"

"I don't want to do it as much as you, but we did agree to this, so lets get on with it."

3...

2...

1...

**START!**

The moment the bell went, Gutsman slammed his fists against the ground, creating a shockwave that knocked Megaman back. With megaman destracted, Gustman smashed his fists down again, causing several rocks to fall from the ceiling. Megaman quickly siderolled away, barely missing the rocks.

"Sword! Download!" Armed with the sword, megaman rushes forward, before Gutsman began to slam his fists again, causing Megaman to topple over. He continued to smash his fists against the ground, causing cracks to begin to form on the floor.

"He's not letting up! Megaman, hit him before he starts again! "

Dex pulled a chip out of his pocket and prepared to download it.

"Gutspunch! Download!"

Gutsman fist began to glow, but didn't change at all. The moment megaman came close, Gutsman bought his fist forward, slamming it into Megamans gut and sending him flying.

Gutsman began to beat his chest like a gorilla, going "Guts! Guts! Guts!"

"Gutsman! Lets keep this up! Geddon1! Gutsimpact! Download!"

Gutsman slammed his fist into the groung, causing the area to crack and break. Once the panels had cracked or broken, Gutsman prepared to punch again, only this time, his fist went flying through the air like a missile.

"Airshoes! Download!" Jets appeared on Megaman's boots, allowing him to fly over the fist and float over the broken ground. Still armed with his sword, he flew forward and brought the sword down on his shoulder. The only thing that happened, was the sword bounced off his shoulder.

"Guts, guts guts! Gutsman armor super strong. Your sword not work on me! Gutspunch!"

This time, megaman shot above the gutspunch, flying safely above gutsman.

"We can't go near him without him punching us. There has to be something...hmmmm."

"What is it Lan?"

"I have an idea. Gyser! Download!"

A small blue waterball apeared in his hand.

"Throw it into one of the holes!"

Throwing it down, it landed in the hole infront of Gutsman.

"Guts, guts, guts! What was that spose to complish?"

"You'll see.."

Suddenly, the ground underneath Gutsman began to rumble. Before he could get out of the way, a jet of water shot out from underneath him, sending him flying.

"Gutsa, gutsa, guuuuuuuuutttts!!!" For a heavy navi, he flew very far. He eventualy came down, smashing hard into the ground."Owwww..."

"Gutsman! Get up!"

"Guuuuuts..." moaned gutsman.

"Lets finish this Megaman! Flamesword, Elecsword! Download!"

A blazing sword of fire and a glowing blade of electricity appeared on each arm.

"Stepcross! Download!"

With both swords in hand, megaman rushed forward with exceptional speed. Before Gutsman even had time to blink, megaman had run both swords him in a cross shape, creating a red and yellow slash across him. Moments later, Gutsman disapeared in a shower of pixels.

_Gutsman logging out_

"...I lost...thanks for the battle though..."

Dex reached into his pocket, pulled out a chip and handed it to Lan. It was a Gutsman chip. "Here. Take it."

"No, I coul.."

"Just take it!"

Even though he didn't want to, he took the chip and added it to his folder.

"Tha.a..nks.. I should get going. My mom must be worried."

"Ok. See ya tommorow Lan!"

"See ya!"

With a wave goodbye, lan headed back home. He quietly opened the door and crept inside. He didn't see his mom so he guessed that she must of gone to bed. He quietly tiptoed upstairs and into his room.

"Phew, I am completely exhausted. Time for bed."

"Uh..Wait a minute Lan...Don't you still need to do YOUR essay?"

"UHHH! I completely forgot!!!"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, at an unknown location, Flashman's operator entered the main chamber.

"I have returned."

A cold, raspy voice could be heared. "Did you get it?"

"Would I fail you my lord?"

"...Good...Now leave."

"Yes sir." With that, he left the room.

"Now it is you turn ." A door opened up and out stepped a tall, rugged man. His shirt and pants were torn in many places. He had scars and cuts all over his body and he looked as though he hadn't shaved in weeks.

"Do not worry master. I will destroy what you hate the most."

"Which is..."

"The smiles and happiness of children."

"Excellent! MWHAHAHAHAHA!"

* * *

A few days had passed since the Flashman incident. Lan was able to complete his assignment...at 3 in the morning. Finally, the weekend had come. Everyone, especially Lan, was glad that school was done for a few days. Some, like Dex, hadn't looked forward to the weekend cause all it meant for him, was homework and occasional detention. Today, something unusual was about to happen...

"Big brutther..."

A quiet voice could be heard coming from the metrostation. Moments later, a small boy stepped out. He looked about 8 years old or so. He had short curly hair, black shorts and a red shirt with a green + on the front. He looked lost.

"Big brutther!" He kept on calling for his brother, when a man with orange hair wearing a suit walked by.

"Hey mister!"

"Yes?"

"Do you now where my big brutther is?"

"Uh.."

"He's the number 1 netbattler in ACDC! You have to know him!"

"Uh...I'm sorry...I just got here and I'm very late..." Before he finished, he ran off.

"Big brutther! Where are you!"

"Finally! The weekend! What should we do first, Megaman?"

"Wh-t ab--t –ur ho--w-rk L-n?" Static was covering the screen, garbling what he was saying.

"What?"

"Y-ur h--ewo-k!"

"Oh. I can do that later. What's wrong with you?"

"I do-t k—w."

"Has this been happening a lot lately?"

"Yeah, Hey! It's working again. Ever since that fight with Flashman, it's been happening a lot lately."

"Could have been from Flashman's final attack?"

"Possibly. We should go to Scilab and get dad to check it out."

"Good idea. Lets go!"

"Oh, I just remembered. There's a rumor going around that the #1 netbattler's brother is in town today."

"What!!!"

"I know. It's probably just a rumor someone made up. Sorry to have brought it up."

After telling his mom where he was going, Lan rushes outside and heads for the metrostation. He is surprised when he finds a line up to the station. Yai and Maylu were at the front of the line.

"Guys, what's going on?"

"Some kid is blocking the entrance! I was going to go shopping today!"

"He says he's looking for his brother, the #1 netbattler in ACDC. Isn't that you Lan?"

"I guess I'd better see what he wants."

"Where's the #1 netbattler?"

'That would be me." Lan steps up. The kid takes one look at him and says, "Liar!"

"But I am the #1 netbattler in ACDC!"

"You're not my brutther! Go get him!"

"Why you little.." Yai was defiantly angry with him.

"Then who is your brother?" asked Maylu.

"You should know! He is #1!"

"Lan, lets go find this kids brother!"

"But he could be anyone! Where do we even start?"

"Let's start with the school. There's has to be someone who knows this kids brother."

"That's a good place to start. Let's go find the "number #1 netbattler in ACDC!"

Luckily for them, the school was open today for detentions and extra work. They began to ask everyone in the school, but no one knew who this kids brother was. Lan was about give up, when he overheard someone saying,

"Someone in class 5-a keeps calling himself "The number #1 netbattler"! What a hot head!"

"That's it!"

Lan quickly ran up to his homeroom. He pushed open the door and stepped in, but the only person inside, was Dex.

"Hey Dex!"

"Hey Lan! What ya doing here?"

"I'm looking for a guy who keeps calling himself "The #1 netbattler". His brother is waiting at the station. You know who it is?"

"Ya mean me!"

"Huh? What?"

"Never mind. He's here! Take me to him Lan!"

"Ok.."

Meanwhile, at the station, Yai was seriously ticked off.

"Now listen here! I planned on going shopping today and I will not be held up by a little kid! Now move if you know what's good for you!"

"No! I will not move until my big brutther gets here!"

"Why you little.."

"Easy Yai. Lan should be back any minute now."

As if on cue, Lan walked up at that very moment.

"Lan! Did you find that kids brother."

"I sure did.'

He steps to the side, letting Dex get past him.

"Chisao!" The boy turns at the sound of Dex's voice.

"Big brutther! It's you!"

Chisao ran to his brother and gave him a huge hug.

"Awww, that's sweet."

"I had completely forgotten that Dex had a brother. But wasn't he living in netopia with his dad?"

After Chisao had stopped hugging Dex, Dex started to explain.

"A few days ago, I got an email saying that Chisao was coming to see me. The only thing I ever saw of him were pictures. So you can imagine that I was overjoyed. I would of been here to meet him, but I got detention and had to stay at school. I'm sorry for causing this mess. "

"That's ok Dex. We're just happy you get to see your brother."

"But..there's still something I don't get."

"What's that Lan?"

"Why does he keep calling you "The #1 netbattler"?"

"Well...uh.." Dex seemed to have trouble finding an answer to that question.

"Because you are the #1 netbattler! Just like you said in all your letters! You always win. Especially against that Lan's navi! Right? "

"Uh…Ya! That's me! The #1 netbattler! I never lose!"

"Give me a break.." Lan said under his breath.

Both Yai and Maylu began to snicker and almost burst out laughing at the lie dex was telling his brother.

"Prove it to them brutther! Beat that forehead girl!"

"Hey!" Yai was angry at him again.

"No not her. I know! Beat this guy with the blue headband!"

"Me?"

"Ya! Beat that guys navi and show them how great you are!"

"Uh…alright Chisao! I show you how great I am!"

"Great. Now what?"

_"Lan." _Whispered Megaman.

_"Yeah Megaman?"_

_"Why don't we let Dex win. If his brother sees him win, he never bother about it again. And besides, imagine what would happen if Chisao found out that his brother had lied to him."_

_"I guess your right. Ok. We'll let Dex win this time."_

"You ready or what!"

"I'm ready. Prepare to lose!"

"Big brutther.." Chisao sounded worried.

"Don't worry little bro. I'm gonna win and show you how good I really am!"

"Jack in! Megaman! Power-up!"

"Jack in! Gutsman! Power-up!"

Once they had both jacked in, the took up their battle stances and prepared to fight.

"Gutsman will win!"

"Just try and beat me!"

3…

2…

1…

**Start!**

"Dashattack! Download!"

A green fishy virus appeared and soared past Megaman. He grabbed onto it and jumped on, heading straight for Gutsman. Once he was over top of Gutsman, he jumped onto his back and grabbed onto his neck. Gutsman started to struggle, until Megaman whispered the plan into his ear.

_"We have to make this look convincing or Chisao might not believe it. Got it?"_

_"Gutsman gets it. Very good at acting. But what of Dex?"_

_"He probably catch on at some point. If he doesn't, tell him later." _

_"Got it."_

"Get off me!" Gutsman grabs him from behind and throws him across the comp.

"You'll pay for that! Megabuster!" Megaman morphed his arm into his buster and began to fire. Several shots missed but some hit, doing no visible damage, just like he planned.

"What? How can that not take you down!"

"Gutsman super strong! Me will win!" Gutsman began to beat his fists against his chest, like a gorilla.

"Watch this Chisao! Gutsinpact! Double download!" Both of Gutsman fists began to glow. He sent one of his fist forward, sending it flying, like a rocket, across the field.

Seeing it coming, Megaman tries to meet it head-on. It hits him at full force, pushing him back, but he is able to keep it at bay. The moment he caught it, Gutsman threw his other fist forward, hitting the other fist, causing the other fist to suddenly push forward, and knocking Megaman back from the force.

The match went on for another 10 minutes. Megaman would attack, it would either miss or do almost no damage and Gutsman would retaliate, hitting Megaman almost every time. Chisao was watching the battle, excited to see how great his brother was. At this point, both navis were panting from the battle.

"You may have survived all my other attacks, but your lucks run out! Time for my most powerful attack!"

"Program advance! Cannon! Triple download!"

A cannon appeared on both of Megaman's hands, before brining them above his head, where they began to glow and transform. When the light faded, Megaman was holding an enlarged version of a cannon. The barrel of the cannon began to glow, as it brought in energy. After a moment, the barrel was glowing bright yellow, ready to fire.

"Zetacannon!" Pulling the trigger, 5 blasts of energy shot out at Gutsman. An attack of that power would finish him off…if he had aimed at him. He had aimed next to him, not hitting him, but creating the illusion that it did. It also created a huge cloud of smoke to add to suspense.

"There's no way he survived that attack! This battle is mine!" Lan was a very convincing winner.

"Really? Look again."

Lan tried to look surprised and bewildered as the smoke cleared and Gutsman was still standing, not a scratch on him.

"B…u…ut HOW?!?"

"Bout time I finished this. You've lasted this long, but your time is up! Areagrab!"

With unbelievable speed, Gutsman appeared infront of Megaman, preparing for something big.

"Program advance! Gutspunch! Triple Download!"

Gutsman fist began to glow before it tripled in size and strength.

"Zetapunch!" Slamming his fist forward, he was about to hit Megaman, when Lan jacked him out, making it look like he had beaten him.

"Ya brutther! You won!"

"Was there any doubt that I wouldn't?"

"No brutther. You're the best!"

"Come on. Lets get going."

"Ok."

Once they had left, Maylu whispered to Lan "That was a nice thing you did, letting him win. But ya think it'll go straight to his head?"

As if to answer the question, an email came at that exact moment.

"Lan, it's a message from Dex. It says, "Thanks for letting me win. I'm sorry for lying but what would he think if he knew I wasn't the best. He'd be disappointed in me. Take this as a thanks." The code to his security cube is attached."

"I guess that's his way of saying thanks."

"Ya. But we sh-ul- r-al- g-t go-ng."

"Not again! We should get going."

"Now that that's taken care of, lets get shopping Maylu!"

"Alright Yai. See ya Lan!"

"See ya Maylu!"

Once they had left, Lan took the next metro to Scilab to see his Dad.

"I hope he can fix the PET."

"M- t-o."

**End of chapter**


	4. Round 2 of the N1 Grand prix prelims!

**Prelims part 2.**

**Disclaimer: All characters belong to Capcom**

After a ten-minute ride on the metroline, Lan arrived at Scilab. It didn't look any different then when he was there a few days ago, but it had completely changed from what it had been before. Everything was new, up to date and better then before.

"Now, I wonder where dad's lab is?"

"L-n. A-k -he re-ep-io-is- wh-r- d-d's -ab -s."

"Megaman, I didn't understand a word of what you just said."

"Th- rec-pti-ni-t!" Megaman pointed reception desk.

"Oh! The receptionist. She'll know where dad's lab is."

Walking up to the desk, he asked where his dad's lab was.

"Your name?"

"Lan Hikari."

"Ah, mister Hikari's lab is on the 5th floor. Just take the elevator."

"Thank you!"

The elevator took a while to come, when it did, someone was already in it. Lan stepped in and pushed the button to the 5th floor. There was an odd silence as the elevator arrived at the 5th floor. Running out, he gasped at what he saw. This lab was the most hi-tech lab one he had ever seen. The computers were the latest models; huge windscreens covered the walls, streams of data running by every screen. Theres was a large system on the far wall, probably the main computer.

"Wow..."

"La-, f-nd da-!"

"That I understood." He began to walk through the lab, stopping every so often to look at the computers or screens. He was looking at one of the screens when a voice came form behind him.

"Excuse me, are you looking for someone?" Lan turned around and saw it was one of the scientists.

"Do you a scientist by the name Hikari?"

"Yes. What do you know of him."

"He's my dad." The scientist seemed surprised.

"His son? Yes, I remember seeing you in the lab before. I'm sorry but he is in a very important meeting. He could be in it for sometime. Why do you need to see him?"

"My PET is broken and I was hoping he could fix it."

"Your PET is custom made. Only Dr. Hikari could fix it." He reaches into a cabinet and pulls out a small, orange PET.

"Take this SubPET. That way, if it does break down, you have a backup. I'll tell your father you came by."

"Thanks." Lan takes the SubPET and pockets it before leaving.

"Looks like we'll have to wait to get the PET fixed."

"Well you know dad's busy with his work."

"Hey! Is it working again?"

"Looks like it. Anyway, we should probably head home."

"I guess."

Lan, once again, get on the elevator and heads to the lobby. He is about to leave, when a man in a cowboy had runs up to him.

"Hey, it's that DNN producer from before!"

"What are you doing here?" The producer suddenly asks him.

"I was just..." Lan ties to answer, but the guy cuts him off.

"You have to hurry! The next round of the prelims is starting now! Hurry or you'll be disqualified!"

"What!?!"

"You did so well in the last round, I'll try and make so you're not disqualified."

"Thanks."

"Now hurry up and head to Scilab square!" With that, he runs off.

"That guy needs to drink less coffee."

Suddenly, the guy turns around and runs back.

"I almost forgot. You need this to take the cyberline to Scilab square."

He hands Lan a Cscipass.

"Now hurry!" He runs off again.

"Lan! We'd better get going if we plan to make it! Hurry!"

"Alright, enough with all the "hurry, hurry"."

Quickly, Lan jumps onto a metroline and gets home. He runs in the door, past his mom and up to his room. Once he gets to his room, he boots up his computer to jack in.

"Jack in! Megaman! Power up!"

In a flash of light, Megaman appeared on the ACDC net. He hurries to the square, where a new path had just been made. Taking the path, he arrived at the newly constructed cyberline station. It had just been made to connect different main systems, allowing navis to travel freely between them. The first thing he noticed, was the line of people buying passes to get onto the cyberline. Already having his pass, he ran past them all and showed it to the conductor program. Once it had checked his pass, a single person car rolled by.

"Get on." Was all the program said, so he did. The moment he did, rails appeared on all sides, keeping him in the car.

"Go." The moment the program said go, the car zoomed off along the track. Megaman had to hold on to the sides of the car to keep from falling over. Moments later, the car began to slow down, then came to a complete stop.

"Scilab station!" The rails on the car rolled down, letting Megaman step off it. Once he was off, the car zoomed off, returning to the ACDC station.

Once Megaman's dizziness from the ride wore off, he headed for the Scilab square. It was hard to miss, having a big neon sign that said "Scilab square!" infront of it. The entrance to the square had two large screens around it, showing what was going on around the square. Several navis were watching the screens already. After stepping on to the portal to the square, he began to look for the head of the prelims.

The square was a large area with several smaller areas connected to it. Some of the areas included a store, a message board and a link station. There were also several empty areas, used for just about anything. One of these areas, was being used for the prelims. He just had to figure out which one. He found it after checking three other areas, again, there was a huge line of everyone who had made it.

"Next time, we get here sooner."

_20 minutes later…_

Finally, the line had shortened, and he was next. He walked up to the navi, who looked like a reporter, and prepared to start the prelims.

"Alright! We're ready to start. The first part is a three round survival. Starting in 3..2…1..now!" The moment she said now, three level two mettaurs appeared.

"Not these guys again!"

"Well, we beat them last time, so this should be a breeze!"

"I guess. Let's go! Longsword! Download!"

A really long sword appeared on his arm. Swinging it, he took out the first mettaur, causing the second one to raise its helmet, before firing a shockwave.

"Guard! Download!" A yellow shield appeared in front of Megaman, sending the shockwave right back at the mettaur. Once the second mettaur was gone, the last one was a sitting duck.

"This one will be a snap. Megabuster!" After firing several shots at the mettaur, it finally went down.

"Time for battle two!" This time, two bunnies and a cannon appeared.

"Grasstage! Heatside! Download!" The whole field transformed into a grassy meadow, and a flame-thrower appeared on his arm. With one shot, boosted by the grass, both bunnies were wiped out. The cannon suddenly fired, hitting Megaman right in the chest, knocking the wind out of him.

"You ok?"

"Huh..huh..ya."

"These outta take care of that cannon. Minibomb! Double download!"

A Minibomb appeared in each hand. Tossing them forward, they both hit the cannon, deleting it.

"Time for round three!"

Only two viruses appeared this time: a ratton and a boomer. The moment it started, the boomer fired off his boomerang. Megaman used his buster to knock the boomerang off course, but while he was preoccupied with the boomerang, the ratton sent a ratbomb at him and by the time he noticed it, it was too late. The bomb hit his legs before exploding, knocking him over. The boomerang continued to travel until it had returned to the boomer.

"Arrrg…I hate rattons!!!"

"This will stop their bombs. Triplecrack! Download!!

A steel pickaxe appeared in his hand, creating three large holes when it hit the ground. The next time the ratton fired off a bomb, it fell into the hole.

"That deals with him, at least for a little while. Now for the other guy."

The boomer was preparing to fire its boomerang again. It stopped, and sent it flying towards him. The moment the boomerang left the boomers mouth, he was a sitting duck.

"Hi-cannon! Download!" Megaman was armed with a blue cannon, which was aimed at the boomer. The moment the boomerang reached him, he dived under it and pulled the trigger of the Hi-cannon, sending a large blast of energy at the boomer, deleting it. The boomerang disappeared with its user.

"Yes!" His victory was short lived, as the panels that had been destroyed returned, allowing the ratton to attack. It didn't waste time in attacking, as it sent several rat bombs at Megaman. He was able to blast a few with his megabuster, but the rest moved out of the way and slammed into him, exploding.

"Recover150! Download!" A pink aura surrounded him, healing most of the damage done by the rat bombs. The ratton continues to zip around, firing off rat bombs as it went. Most hit nothing, some though, headed straight for him again.

"Spreader! Download!" A spreadgun appeared on his arm, firing a shot that shattered into multiple blasts on contact. The blast his one bomb, which sent shrapnel towards the others, taking them out as well.

"We can't keep this up Lan."

"Your right. We'll need to take it out with one blow, and I have just the things to do it. Geddon1, Quake1! Download!"

A shockwave ran through the field, surrounding the ratton with holes, immobilizing it. Before it could do anything, a large virus with a boulder fell from the sky, smashing into the ratton at full force.

"Match over! Since we still have time, let's move right on to the next part. Somewhere in this area is a navi disguised like an evil navi. Find him and defeat him in a battle to excel to the next round."

"Alright Lan. Let's find that "evil" navi!"

Exiting the square, he began to search the entire area. He found nothing in area1, still nothing in the lower levels of area 2, and was still searching the largest of the area, area2.

"He has to be here, we've looked everywhere else!"

"I don't know Lan. Maybe we just didn't see him before. I think I should turn around."

He was about to turn around, when he saw to navis walking down the path. He heard one say "Man, for an actor, he sure is hard. And mean!", While the other one said, "And after coming all this way, to lose! This sucks!" as they walked past him.

"See Megaman! He is in this area! I told ya!"

"Lets just find him and get this over with."

Quickly running through the area, he found him near a video screen, watching the preliminaries unfold.

"There you are!" Hearing a voice, the navi turned around to face him.

"So..another foolish navi comes to fight me. Do you think you can possibly stand a chance against the most powerful navi in the undernet, the legendary Virus King!"

"Virus king! Lan, we'd better be careful! This could be the most powerful navi we've ever fought!"

"Relax Megaman, he's just an actor from the TV station, remember?"

"Oh. So he's not as powerful as he says he is?"

"Exactly."

The navi, hearing all this, turned around and yelled "CUT!". He walked up to Megaman, with a disappointed look on his face.

"Look. We can't use footage like that. The audience will get bored! Listen, I'll hide again in area 1, you find me and we do this all over again. And this time, make it interesting!" With that, he headed towards area 1, leaving Megaman standing there, speechless.

"…………Wow. We really blew it."

"Let's not dwell on this and go look for him…again."

"Got it."

After heading back to area1, he began to look for him again. He looked in every nook, every cranny and still had trouble finding him. He eventually found him in a dead end near the square.

_"Alright", _the navi whispered to him, "_Let's make this look good this time. Ahem…_ How dares disturb the legendary Virus King!"

"It's Megaman, and I'm here to defeat you!

"_Great acting.._ Go my viruses!" With that, he summoned two boomers and a canodumb. "Destroy him!"

"Let's do this! Elecsword! Download!" A glowing sword of electricity appeared on Megaman's arm. Running up to the canodumb, he jammed it into the barrel before it could fire, causing electricity to run through it and delete it. Once the canodumb was gone, both boomers fired their boomerangs.

He was able to jump over them as they passed, causing them to crash onto each other. Once the boomers where defenseless, he ran up to them and slashed them both, doing some damage but not destroying them. By then their boomerangs had regenerated, and both were protected again by the steel boomerangs.

"Let's give them a taste of their own medicine. Boomer! Download!"

A boomerang launcher appeared on his arm, loaded with the same boomerang as the boomers. Sending it forward, it hit both boomers once they released their boomerangs.

"Arrrg…How dare you delete my viruses! Prepare to face my wrath!" Activating a sword, he rushed towards Megaman.

"Time to wrap this up. Longsword! Download!" Armed with his own sword, he meets the "virus king" head-on. Their swords clash as they meet, both trying to push the other back. Megaman quickly gains the upper hand, pushing the navi back. With one quick upperslash, the navi is forced to his feet.

"Such…power…impossible…how can one….beat me…the…Virus king!"

With that, he jacked out.

"Man, what a crummy actor."

"A- l-a-t w- be-t –im L-n."

"Not again. I wish dad could fix the PET."

"Y-u kn-w he's busy Lan."

"Hey! Is it working again?"

"Looks like it. Well, we beat the guy, so let's get back to the square."

After returning to the square, they headed back to the reporter navi, who had just finished with another contestant.

"Good job! I saw it all on the cameras! That was fantastic! The last task is being held in ACDC 2 right now! I'd hurry if I were you. Use this to get to ACDC using the cyberline." She hands him CACDCPass. Once he has the pass, he leaves the area.

"Why'd they have the last task in a completely different area?"

"Who knows Lan."

Along the way, he passed Gutsman, Glide and Roll.

"Hey Megaman!" greeted Glide.

"Hey guys! How'd you all do?"

"We all passed! How about you?"

"I'm going to do the last task now."

"Then we'd better not keep you waiting."

"Good luck!" Roll yelled to him as he was leaving

After several minutes, and another trip on the cyberline, he arrived ACDC area2. After a moment, he had found the navi.

"The last task is another three round survival match! Fight 3 rounds of viruses to advance!"

"Not more viruses…"

"Match 1!" A canodumb and two Quakers, viruses that looked like criminals with heavy weights, appeared.

"Begin!" Both Quakers jumped high into the air, slamming their weights into the ground, sending shockwaves straight at him. The canodumb followed up by firing a cannon blast at him.

"Areasteal! Download!" The areasteal teleported him away from the attacks.

"They're not the only one who can use shockwaves! Gutsman Megachip! Download!"

A blue orb appeared and transformed into Gutsman. Slamming its fists down, huge shockwaves were sent towards the viruses, taking them all out.

"Impressive! Now for match 2!" This time, two canodumbs and a fishy appeared.

"Begin!"

"Yo-yo! Double download!" A yo-yo launcher appeared on each of Megaman's arms, each loaded with a bladed yo-yo. Sending them flying, they hit both canodumbs, but left him open for the fishy to charge forward, slamming into him.

"Ow…that hurt. Lan! Send me a Dashattack!"

"Alright! Dashattack! Download!" A fishy virus appeared, ready to face off against the other fishy. Both of them rammed forward, taking each other out when they collided.

"Match 2 over! Now for match 3!" Two lv2 mettaurs and a hardhead appeared.

"Begin!"

"Hammer! Download!" A large hammer appeared on his arm, which he used to smash the first mettaur when it raised its helmet. He used it again once the other one had raised its helmet.

"Two down, one to go! Megabuster!" Using his buster, he fired off several shots at the hardhead. But the only thing that happened was that they bounced off its armor. It just stood there, like a statue, unmoving.

"What's with this thing? Why is it just standing there? Is it even going to attack?"

He got his answer moments later, when its head stated to shake. Its face turned red as it opened up its mouth, revealing a cannon. Seconds later, a cannonball shot from the barrel of the cannon, heading straight for him.

"Guard! Download!" A yellow shield appeared infront of him. But the moment the cannonball hit it, the guard shattered like it was made of glass, leaving Megaman to take the full force of the attack. The cannonball hit him hard, knocking him back. Megaman tried to retaliate, but the hardhead had already closed its mouth, becoming a statue once again.

"Let's try this then. Prism, Cannon! Double download!" A small diamond appeared in megaman's hand. Throwing it, it transformed into a large prism in between Megaman and the hardhead. Once the prism was set, a cannon appeared on his arm. Firing it at the prism, the blast increased in size and power before being sent at the hardhead. The blast created a cloud of smoke from the impact, clouding the field.

"Did we get him?"

"Moments later, the smoke cleared…and the hardhead was still standing, completely unharmed.

"Arrrg!" Lan was starting to get frustrated "How can we beat this thing if we can't even make a scratch on it!"

Then, the hardhead was preparing to attack again. Opening its mouth, it fired another cannonball from the cannon in its mouth. Megaman barely dodged it, causing it to smash into the ground and creating a small hole. Hitting the floor, his buster accidentally misfired, hitting the hardhead, who seemed to wince from the attack.

"Lan, I think I found this things weakness. Send me a strong chip."

"Ok. I sure hope you have a plan. Flamesword! Download!"

Once equipped with the flamesword, he waited. The moment the hardhead opened its mouth to attack, Megaman dove in and slashed it with the flamesword. The virus cried out in pain and disappeared.

"Match three! Over!"

"You did it Megaman! I don't know how but ya did it!"

"Congratulations! You have passed the second part of the prelims!"

"Good. Cause I was getting tired of------" Lan is cut off.

"Lan? Lan!" Suddenly, everything began to become blurry and distorted.

"Good job on…Hey? Is something wrong?" The navi had noticed Megaman's strange look.

"What, you don't see anything?" everything was still swimming infront of his eyes.

The navi was confused. "See what?"

"….I get it! The PETs transmission is buggy!"

"Well, I'm sorry to leave but.." The navi began to walk away. "…the station can not be held responsible for this or any other problems."

Moments later, everything stopped swirling and spinning.

"Looks like it's over Lan." No answer.

"Lan? Lan!!!"

**End of chapter.**


	5. Lan's trip to the zoo

_Sorry about the long update. Had a huge case of writers block. This chapter may seem a little rushed, but at least I finally finished it! I'll try and write more soon!_

**Lan's trip to the zoo!**

"Lan? Lan!" Still no answer from Lan. They had been completely cut off.

Megaman had been trying to contact Lan, but to no avail. Lan was also trying frantically to get contact, as his screen was covered in static.

"This is bad! With the PET like this, I can't jack him out. I hope he's alright."

Megaman was racing through ACDC net, trying to find away to get back to the PET. He passed several different navis, but none of them seemed to care about him.

"Maybe someone in the square can help me."

Quickly, he made his way to the square. He looked around, but all he saw were normal navis. Then he saw an official navi; maybe he could help him.

"Excuse me!" The official navi turned to his call.

"Yes, can I help you?"

"I've been cut off from my NetOp and can't jack out!"

"Oh my...well, the only way I can think of is to get to the last place you jacked in to jack out. I'll try and send a call to your NetOp to tell him you're on your way."

"Thanks!" With that, he ran off, heading to the port in Lan's computer.

Once he left, the navi began to smile an evil smile.

"Looks like the plan's working..."

Megaman hurried to the Lan's port. He was panicking, as several navis looked over at him.

After a while of running, he made his way to the port, sighing in relief.

"Finally, I made it."

Walking into the port, he was ported into Lan's harddrive. But what he saw was not a happy sight. The whole place was covered in viruses. Because of the viruses the port had been shut down, blocking his exit.

"This is bad. I don't know if I'll be able to handle this many viruses without Lan's help."

Many of the viruses turned to him and prepared to attack. There were mettaurs with their pickaxes raised, canodumbs with their targets ready, Bunnies with their zaprings charged and Boomers with their boomerangs ready.

"I'll have to try if I hope to get out of here. Megabuster!" Preparing his weapon, he began to fire and took out some of the mettaurs. But at the same time, he was hit by several zaprings, blasted by canodumbs, struck by mettaurs shockwaves and smacked with boomerangs. The force of the attacks did serious damage and blew him back.

"I have..to hold...on..." Getting up he continued to take out the viruses one by one.

Everytime he attacked, all the viruses retaliated at him. He was able to dodge most of them, but he was still struck by several attacks.

At this point, Lan was still worried about Megaman, when a light started flashing on his computer. Bringing up the screen, he saw that his antivirus system had detected several viruses and...a net navi!

"Maybe it's him! I need to help him!" Running the program, a yellow program appeared infront of Megaman.

"This is Lan's antivirus program! He knows I'm here!"

Suddenly, the program began to glow and slammed down on the ground. This caused several holes to open up under the viruses. Many of them fell into the oblivion, but some managed to survive. After this, it disappeared.

"Time to finish this!"

With the amount of viruses depleted from the program, he was quickly able to take out the remaining viruses, clearing the system. Once they were all gone, the exit port reactivated.

"Finally, I can get out of here!"

Stepping on to the port, he was jacked out. Lan quickly plugged the SubPET in and Megaman was downloaded in.

"Hey Lan."

"Megaman! I'm so glad your okay!"

"Was there any doubt that I wouldn't be?"

_Later that night…_

Lan's mom was in the kitchen, making dinner. Lan was waiting in the dining room, miserable.

"This sucks. We can't go online, or netbattle, or anything!"

"Don't worry Lan. We'll get the PET fixed soon."

"I hope…"

"Lan!" Lan's mom yelled from the kitchen. "Once you're done, you should go to bed. You have to get up early tomorrow."

"Get up early? What for?"

"Lan! Have you forgotten already? Tomorrow's your class trip to Yoka zoo!"

"Oh ya! I totally forgot!"

"A trip to the zoo…this is going to be great!"

"Gee Megaman, you sound like a little kid."

"Uh, who was it that cried when dad was too busy to take us?"

"That…that was a long time ago!"

"Yaaaa, sure." Megaman began to laugh.

Lan was trying to come up with a good comeback, when….

"_Ding, Dong" _The doorbell rang.

"Huh? Who could that be at this time of night?" came Lan's mom from the kitchen.

Moments later, the doorknob turned and the door swung open. A middle-aged man in a brown lab coat walked in. A red insignia was above his heart.

"Dad!" Lan ran towards the door, his mom followed.

"Hey honey. I thought you were working late tonight."

Dr Hikari kicked of his shoes before answering his wife. "I was, but the main server's in for maintenance, so I got the night off."

"That's great."

"Um…can I come in now?"

"Oh, I'm sorry!"

"You just noticed now?"

All three of them began to laugh at this.

After dinner…

Lan had just finished putting away the dishes when his Dad walked up to him.

"So Lan, I heard you came by today."

"Ya, my PET broke! Do you think you can fix it?"

"Well, let's see." Lan handed his PET to his dad, who began to look for any problems. Moments later, he seemed taken back by something.

"Wow…the transmission program is fried. I'll have to make a brand new program. You should get it back in a day or two."

Lan began to whine. "You mean I have to wait even longer!"

"Well, that's the price you pay for a fully customed PET!"

"Lan!" His mom's voice came from the kitchen. "You should be getting ready for bed or you'll be late tomorrow!"

"Ok. Night!" Lan quickly ran up to his room and after several minutes of getting ready, he was out like a light.

Lan bolted upright as the light streamed in through his curtains. He was unsure what time it was, and his alarm usually woke him up. Getting up, he walked over to his desk where the subPET was and looked at the clock. It was then that he started to panic.

"I overslept! Gotta hurry or they'll leave with out me!" Panicking, he quickly started getting ready. He heard a yawn from the other side of the room as Megaman woke up.

"Awwww…. Morning Lan. Why ya in such a hurry?"

"I'm in a hurry because YOU forgot to wake me up! Now I'm late!"

"Sorry Lan. SubPETs don't have alarm clock functions."

Like a hurricane, Lan tore through his room and in moments, was fully dressed. Grabbing the subPET, he quickly raced down the stairs. His mom was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs.

"I told you to get up early. Now hurry or you're going to be late."

"Why didn't you wake me up?"

"I did. Twice actually. You're just impossible to get up in the morning."

Not waiting to here the rest of it, he quickly grabbed some breakfast and was out the door, racing against the clock.

"_I hope they didn't leave without me…"_

_At school…_

"Now, is everyone present and accounted for?"

"Miss Mari!" Maylu piped up. "Lan's not here."

"Oh Lan… is that boy ever on time? Well I guess we'll just have to leave without…"

"WAIT!" Everyone's head turned to the direction of the voice, and saw Lan running towards them.

"Lan. So nice of you to join us."

"Huh…Sorry…Miss Mari…"

"Well, now that EVERYONE is here, we can finally get going. Now remember everyone. You are representing ACDC town so I want you all to be on your best behavior. Understand?"

"Yes Miss Mari." The whole class chorused.

_One bus ride later…_

As everyone got off the bus, they noticed that the zoo seemed kind of empty. Except for them, there were only a few people there. They saw a father and his daughter playing some kind of game, a grandfather and his grandson buying some food, and a few other assorted people buying tickets or just sitting around.

"I wonder why there's almost no one here." Lan got his answer when Miss Mari returned from asking a zoo director.

"Sorry kids! I just learned that the zoo is closed for today." Everyone began to whine from this.

"Don't worry. We'll stay here tonight and go to the zoo tomorrow. That makes today a free day! Do whatever you wish, just remember to be at the inn before nightfall." With that, she walked off towards the inn, leaving her students to do whatever they wished.

Everyone started running off in several different directions. Maylu and Yai headed towards the inn, Dex and Chisoa (he had gotten permission to bring him along) headed straight for the food stands. Lan started looking around, trying to figure out what to do.

"Megaman, any ideas of what we should do first?"

"How about we play some of the games, see if we could win something. Maybe you could win something for Maylu. Girls love it when they get gifts."

"They do?" asked Lan, completely oblivious.

"Oh Lan…"

_Several hours later…_

Lan had just used up the last of his tokens. He had played the ball tilt game, came in second against another member of his class. He had had a snack with Dex and Chisao. He had also spent at least an hour playing a ball toss game, eventually winning a small stuffed panda.

"Well, that was a good way to burn a few hours. What should we do next?"

"Lan, I think it's about time we head to the inn. It's just on that hill over there."

Figuring there was nothing left to do, he followed Megaman's directions to the inn. It looked like something from several hundreds years ago, having a kind of feudal theme to it. He quickly ran upstairs, straight to his classes room. Walking in, he saw several other people all ready in the room.

Several of his classmates where in the corner of the room, playing somekind of card game. He also saw someone hitting the buster t.v, trying to get it to work. Seeing Maylu by the window, he ran over to her.

"Hey Lan." She said, having noticed him just enter the room.

"Hey Maylu…" Lan was blushing as he tried to work up the courage to give her the prize. Maylu noticed this and almost started to laugh.

"What is it Lan?"

"Well…I…I…won you this. I hope you like it." He takes the stuffed panda from behind his back and hands it to her. Sweat begins to roll down his face, as he waits for her response.

"Oh Lan…I love it! Thank you." She hugs the bear even tighter as Lan breathes a sigh of relief.

"Hey Yai, don't you think this is cute?" she turns around, only to find that there is no one beside her.

"Hey, where'd Yai go? She was standing here a minute ago."

One of their classmates walked over and answered her question. "I just saw Yai go in there." He pointed to the closet at the end of the room. "She looked like she found something."

"I'll go see what she's up to." Volunteered Lan. Leaving Maylu there, he raced over to the closet. Opening the door, he realized this wasn't a closet, it was an emergency exit! It consisted of a row of stairs, leading to a back exit. With sence of discovery, he quickly raced out the door.

Walking out into the back of the inn, he saw several different passageways leading away from the inn. Taking one at random, he raced down the path, only to be confronted by a big metal gate. The words "Stay out!" were clearly visible in big red letters.

"Hmmm… I wonder what's behind this gate…"

"Hey Lan!" came a voice from behind him. Turning around, he saw Yai running up to him, her shoes covered in dirt. This was unusual for her, as she normally stayed completely clean.

"Hey Yai. Maylu's looking for you."

"She is? Well, I guess I should head back."

"Hey Yai, what happened to your shoes?"

"These stupid zoo people! They don't clean their paths very well! I stepped in a huge mudpile and now my shoes are ruined! Just wait until I have a talk with the zoo director!" That was the Yai Lan knew so well. With her in toe, they raced back to the inn.

_Several hours later…_

"Hey! Cut it out!" came the voice of Yai as she was hit with yet another pillow. It was after dinner and they were all suppose to go to sleep early for tomorrow, but none of them could fall asleep. So they had all decided to waste time and tire themselves out, with a pillow fight.

"Eat this!" came the cry of Dex as he threw a pillow straight at Lan. Lan quickly ducked and retaliated with his own pillow. His hit Dex straight in the face knocking him on his back.

Lan started to laugh, until a pillow came sailing through the air, hitting him in his open jaw. He looked over and saw Maylu laughing, saying, "I got you good Lan!"

Lan was about to get her back, when Chisao's pillow came sailing through the air, missing him and hitting one of the other students.

Lan grabbed two stray pillows and threw both at Maylu. Maylu quickly ducked both, who hit Dex, who had been standing behind her. Both pillows knocked him back once again. "Not again…" was his only response.

Everyone started to laugh and the pillow fight continued, Yai trying to hide in the corner from the pillows. The fight lasted almost an hour, and by that time, they were all exhausted. Cleaning of the pillows and setting back up their mats, they where all fast asleep in minutes.

Meanwhile, someone else was still awake. The whole zoo staff had gone home, done feeding the animals and setting up the zoo for tomorrow. All except, for the scarred man. With his big, almost caveman like arms, he grabbed the bookshelf in his office and pulled it back, revealing a secret compartment.

Reaching, in he pulled out a small box. Opening the box, he pulled out a big and sharp needle. Grabbing the snake cage he had brought in, he stabbed the needle into the python, ejecting the needle's contents into the still sleeping snake. He slowly began to laugh.

"Soon, all the animals will be ready and by tomorrow, everyone will know and fear, the great WWW!" With that, he let out a loud laugh, but no one was awake to hear it.

**End of chapter **


	6. Lions, Tigers, Bears, Trouble!

**Disclaimer: All characters are property of Capcom.**

Lions, Tigers, Bears…Trouble!

"Lan…Lan…wake up!" was the noise that invaded Lan's dreams. Slowly, he opened his eyes and got up. Everyone else in the room had gotten up, so the room was empty except for him. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Lan grabbed his subPET from beside him.

"Megaman…why'd you wake me up so early?"

"I woke you up "so early" because everyone else is awake and are downstairs having breakfast as we speak. I also woke you up…" Megaman didn't get to finish, as Lan suddenly stood up.

"Breakfast!?!" Hearing about food, Lan suddenly dove into action, quickly grabbing his clothes and starting to get dressed. In a few minutes, Lan was ready.

"Lan wait! There's another reason I woke you up!"

"What reason? And can it wait till after breakfast?"

"No it can't wait! I just got an email from dad!"

"From dad? Why didn't you just say so! Come on, open it!"

Megaman sighed as wondered how he lived with Lan. Pulling up the file, he opened up his recent email log, displaying his newest email.

"It says "Dear Lan, I've fixed the transmission program. Now you can use your regular PET."

"That's awesome!"

"Wait…there's more. It says "I have also completed my latest project, the Navi customizer, which I have attached to this email as well. If you upload it into your PET, you can install various programs into Megaman. If you program him well, Megaman can become much stronger! I've also included a few programs for you to use. But because of this, you will have to change folders. I have included a folder to use as a base as well. Happy customizing. Love, Dad."

"Good old dad, always full of surprises. Well, time to upload the new programs." Grabbing his PET from his stuff, he plugged it into the subPET, transferring all of the data. In moments, Megaman was once again back in his PET.

Not even missing a beat, Lan quickly ran downstairs to get some breakfast. After piling a huge mountain of eggs, bacon, sausages and some toast on his plate, he found a nice empty table to sit at. Seconds later, he started scarfing his food down

Halfway through his meal, he pulled out his PET, the download of the Navicust complete.

"Now, lets see what this thing can do." Opening the tutorial file, a simple list of instructions popped up.

"Let's see…Step 1: Initiate program. This will put your navi in sleep mode for the duration of the programming. You heard him Megaman." Pressing the start button, Megaman entered into sleep mode, his eyes slowly closing. Replacing him on the screen, was a 4x4 grid, with three black lines running through the second row up.

"Step 2. Open program window." Pressing a button on the right side of his screen, a list of programs opened up. There were only three in it at the moment.

"Now…Step 3. Grab the Undershot program and place it on the Memory maps command line. Rule #1. Programs such as this MUST touch the Command line." Pressing the button marked "Undershot", a white, 3-squared program appeared on the screen. Guessing that the Command line was the three black lines, he dragged it across the screen, placing it neatly on the lines.

"Next, take the plus part program "Attack 1". Rule #2. Plus part Programs CANNOT be placed on the Command line." Selecting the second program on the list, a 3-squared purple program, with a darker square design, appeared. Making sure to avoid the Command line, he placed it just above Undershot program.

"Lastly, select the Speed 1 program. Rule #3. Programs of the same color CANNOT touch." Taking the white program, he stuck in the top left corner of the screen, away from the white Undershot.

"Finally, hit the run button. This will awaken your navi, empowered by the installed programs. Alright…I hope this works." Hitting the run button, the screen of his PET began to glow. When the glow had disappeared, so did the Navicust from the screen. Megaman reappeared on the screen, his eyes slowly opening.

"Megaman?" All Lan heard was a quiet groan.

"Megaman!"

"Awwwww…." Came the sound of Megaman yawning as he came out of sleep mode.

"Morning Lan. I feel more powerful already!"

"Jeez…don't scare me like that Megaman. I thought…" Before Lan could finish, a red light appeared in the corner of his screen. Seconds later, the base folder that had been sent as well opened up.

For the next half-hour, Lan scanned through his chips, trying to find the right ones to fit into a folder of 30. He only had two Megachips, so that decision wasn't hard, but he had to think for the other 28.

Throughout this, Lan went back for seconds. And thirds. Then fourths. He was on his fifth helping, when he finally finished. Satisfied with his work (and finally full) he got up and headed for the zoo entrance.

As he walked from the inn, he saw people already running back and forth, playing some off the zoo games and buying tickets. The once empty, closed zoo was now bustling with people of all ages, making it even harder to reach the entrance.

After a few minutes, Lan finally reached the zoo entrance, where everyone else was already waiting. Joining the group, he walked up behind Maylu and the others. As he arrived, Ms. Mari spoke up.

"Well, now that everyone is here, we can finally enter the zoo. Remember: you are all representing our school, so no horseplay. Got it?"

"Yes Ms. Mari!" The whole class repeated in unison before walking towards the entrance. It took a few minutes for everyone to get through the turnstile, but eventually they were all through. As the last person stepped through, a pair of eyes could be seen glaring from a nearby office.

"Enjoy your trip of chaos…" was all he said before closing the blinds and heading over to his computer.

Meanwhile, everyone was having a blast in the zoo. Everyone had scattered the moment they entered the park, some going groups, others going to see their favorite members of the animal kingdom.

Dex was having a staring contest with one of the gorillas, while Chisoa watched him.

"You go Bro! No can beat you in a starring contest!"

Dex was staining his face as he tried to keep from blinking, looking almost exactly like the gorilla, minus the fur.

* * *

Yai was running from cage to cage, looking at all the animals while trying to find the monkey cage. Maylu was with her, watching parrots on their perches. As she did this, she noticed something. 

"Hey Yai, don't the animals seem to be acting weird to you?"

"No…the only thing I find weird is that there aren't any monkeys here!" Maylu sighed as her friend ignored her question entirely.

* * *

Lan was meanwhile watching the giraffe, bending his neck back to see the whole animal. 

"Wow…this guy's tall."

"Lan, if you keep doing that, your strain you neck!"

* * *

After over an hour and a half, Lan had seen all the animals and prepared to meet up with everyone. Dex was still have chimp staring contests, so he asked everyone to wait for him. 

"Wait for me by the lion cages!" was all Dex said as the others walked away. Not wanting to get between him and his staring contest, they decided to wait by the lion cages.

After twenty minutes of waiting, Lan was starting to become impatient.

"What is taking him so long!"

"You know how into contests Dex can get. He's probably forgotten about meeting us here." Was Yai's answer as she tried to stay patient.

"Hey guys…" interrupted Maylu, " have you noticed anything strange about the animals. They're all acting so…weird." Maylu looked back and forth from the nearby cages as she repeated the same question she had asked Yai.

"No." was Lan's answer.

"Well, I've see actual wild animals in NetAfrica, so this is nothing!" gloated Yai, the light reflecting off her huge, shiny forehead as she talked.

She was about to gloat some more, when a loud roar came from behind them. They all turned to see the lions suddenly leap at the bars, the only thing holding the ferocious beast from them. Both Yai and Maylu screamed, as Yai grabbed onto Lan's leg and Maylu hid behind him, both afraid.

"Lan…"

"What was that?" asked Lan as they all started to slowly step away from the cage.

"It…it was probably nothing." Said Yai, trying to calm herself down as she was as scared as the rest of them. Before they had taken three steps, the beast once again charged at the cage, this time with enough force to cause the sound of bending metal to fill the air.

"Ah…guys…I think we should run."

"I second that." Was Maylu's answer.

"Ok then. RUN!!!!" With that, they all turned and ran, just as they heard the sound of snapping metal. Lan took a second to look behind him as he ran, and then wished he hadn't.

Behind them, the lions had escaped from their cages, snarling and pawing at the scraps of broken metal. It only took them a moment to switch from the broken metal on the ground, to the terrified kids running from them. Within moments, the chase was on.

As Lan and the others tried to outrun the lions, they saw that the rest of the zoo was in chaos. Somehow, all the cages had been opened, freeing every single animal in the zoo.

They saw several people being attacked by parrots, trying to keep from having their eyes pecked out. They saw a group of people, being backed into a corner by a slowly slithering serpent. There was even a group of people who were hiding in the elephant cage to avoid the elephant!

"What is going on? Why are all the animals acting so vicious?"

"I don't know." Yelled Lan, "Just keep running!"

"Lan! Over there!" yelled Megaman. Lan looked were he was pointing and saw a doorway near the panda cage, the panda being one of the only animal not freaking out.

"Great job Megaman! C'mon guys!" Quickly, they reached the door, the lions getting closer by the second. Lan quickly kicked it open before they all rushed in, slamming the door behind them. As they took a minute to rest, they looked around and saw that they were in the supply closet.

"Ok…what the heck is going on!" Yell Yai, still slightly freaked out from almost becoming lion chow.

"I don't know, but we have to get back. Dex and Chisoa are still out there!"

"Lan's right." Spoke up Maylu.

Lan walked back over to the door and placed his ear against the door. For a minute, nobody said anything as Lan listened for the growl or roar of any ferocious animals.

"I don't hear anything…" he said after a few minutes. Slowly, he reached for the doorknob and opened the door a crack. Not seeing anything, he opened the door even wider, gesturing to the others that it was safe.

As they exited the room, they heard a loud screech from above them. Looking up, they saw the zoo's prized condor, flying for the exit. It was then that they noticed that it had something clutched in its talons. And not just anything, but…

"Its got Chisoa!" screamed Yai as the saw it pass above them. For it was indeed Chisoa, trying to break free from his captor, while screaming "Big Brothar!!"

"Chisoa!" They all turned to see Dex running towards them, gasping for air and yelling his little brother's name.

"Dex, what happened?"

"We…we were by the Condor cage, about to meet up with you guys when the animals around us started freaking out and attacking people. Then, then door of the cage suddenly swung open. The second it was free, it grabbed Chisoa and flew off before I could stop it."

"It's heading for the park exit!" exclaimed Maylu.

"Lets go!" With that, they both headed for the park exit, running past some of the escaped animals and trying to not get eaten. As they neared the gate, a giraffe seemed to come from nowhere, causing Lan to jump back.

"Lan, it's just a giraffe!" yelled Megaman from his PET.

"So?

"They're sweet natured and completely harmless!" As if to justify what he said, the giraffe simply walked by them, and started to chew some leaves on a nearby tree. Picking himself up, they headed towards the gate, were several people were already standing around. A park employee was standing nearest the gate.

"We have to get out of here!" someone in the crowd yelled out. As every one started to push ,trying to get to the front, the park employee turned to face them, a look of fear on his face.

"Someone's locked the gate from the outside!"

"Can you get it open?" asked Lan.

"I'll try, but it will take a while…" As he said this, he jacked in his PET to the electronic lock and starting punching in a series of codes.

"We can't wait! We have to get out of here!"

"I'm going as fast as I can!" he yelled back as he continued to hit codes into the system.

"There has to be a faster way out of here!" Lan quickly broke away from the group and headed away from the exit. The other called out to him, but he didn't hear them as he searched for another exit.

"Megaman, can you bring up a map of the park?"

"Give me a minute Lan." Megaman opened up a small window, pulling out a map file. Clicking on it, the screen was replaced by a full sized map of the zoo. Using the map as a guide, he continued to look for another way out.

After twenty minutes of searching, he had still come up with nothing. He had been force to turn around once after almost stepping onto a path of sleeping lions and he had wasted some time trying to sneak past a pack of gorillas.

"Lan, perhaps it's time we headed back to the exit to see if they got it open yet."

Lan sighed as he realized his search was a failure. "Ya. I guess we should head ba…hey…what's that?" Lan was about to turn around, when he saw something poking out from some nearby bushes. Walking over, he parted the bushes, revealing a colorfully painted sign that read "END OF PATH."

"What's this doing here?"

"Lan, look!" Lan turned and saw what his Navi was gesturing towards.

"A hidden pathway! It could lead us out of here!"

"Or it could lead to even more danger."

"Well where ever it goes, it's probably better then just standing here!" With that, Lan started walking down the hidden path. It was covered with vines, root and weed and looked like no one had used the path in a long while.

"Why would they build a path then never use it?" He got his answer as he passed by several stone walls, covered from head to toe in caked on graffiti from at least a year ago.

As Lan turned his attention back to the path, he heard a strange noise as he took another step. Kneeling sown, he saw what looked like a large piece of crushed metal, trampled by the stampeding animals. It didn't take him long to remember where he had seen it before.

"This is the gate Yai showed me yesterday. So that means…" Looking to his left, he saw the path he had found the other day, the path leading back to the inn. Getting back up, he raced down the path, up the set of hidden stairs and into the inn "closet".

It took him a minute of two to find his way through the dark closet to find the door. As he swung open the closet door, a putrid smell flowed past him. Lan used his sleeve to try and cover his nose from the smell, as he made his way across the room.

Running from the room, he found himself on the second floor of the inn. He was about to take the stairs to lobby, when he heard hissing. Looking down, he stepped back as he saw a python slithering up the stairs.

"Nice python…" With each step Lan took, the huge serpent slithered even closer. He was about to turn and run, when he tripped on a loose floorboard. As he hit the ground, the snake let out another hiss, before lunging towards him.

Lan braced himself, when he heard footsteps from behind him and the sound of the snake hissing in anger. Opening his eyes again, he saw one of the inn's workers, holding the snake at bay by a long stick. She turned to him as he got up.

"Stay by the stair wall. I'll keep this guy busy while you escape."

"What about you?"

"Don't worry", she said with a smile on her face, "I can take care of myself. Now go!"

Listening to what she was saying, he walked over and pressed himself against the wall. As he slowly made his way down the stairs, the snake tried to attack him again, only to get hit in the side of the face by the stick again. Once he was away from the snake, he broke into a run.

As he raced through the lobby, he saw several people hiding behind the counter and some were holding stools and other small pieces of furniture, ready to use them as weapons if needed.

The moment he reached the front door, he heard a loud roar to his right. Turning around, he saw a lion not more then three feet away from him. Before he could even react, the lion lunged at him.

Time seemed to slow down as he heard someone yell behind him. He saw a flash of crimson, before hearing the sound of wood hitting flesh, followed by the loud thump of the lion getting knocked to its feet. When it was over, he looked over at the person who had saved him.

A young woman stood before him, holding a wooden sword in her hand. She wore a pair of ripped jeans, a red jacket and a white shirt underneath. Her black hair was tied back in a ponytail by a green band. A gear shaped pin flashed in the light as she got up.

"You okay kid?" she asked, still somehow smiling.

"Ya, I'm fine. Thanks for saving me."

"Don't mention it. What's your name kid?"

"I'm Lan. You?"

"My name's Tamako. I run the gift shop." She used the wooded sword she was holding and pointed to a small building next to the inn. Lan saw several shelves of stuff through the open doorway. Before he saw anything else, he heard a low growl. Looking back, he saw the lion slowly get to his feet.

"Doesn't know when to quit does he. Listen Lan, while I take care of this guy, you get out of here."

"But Tamako…"

"Don't worry about me." Clutching the wooden sword in her hand, she spun it around before she held it infront of her using both hands.

"I've taken down larger opponents."

Lan realized she could take care of herself, so he quickly broke into a ran. Before the lion could chase him, Tamako leapt up into the air and smacked the lion on the side of the face, knocking him back.

He heard her yell, "I'm your opponent!" as he raced down the hill. He passed a flamingo wading through the water as he passed, who appeared to gawk at him

Moments later, he made his way to the zoo courtyard. He saw a huge line of people near the Metroline station, pushing to try and get out of here as fast as they could. As Lan passed them, he heard the sound of a birdcall from above him. Looking up, he gasped.

In the far corner of the courtyard, there stood a tall metal tower. It was once used to send power from building to building. Now that power cables were underground, it was a relic of the past. But that wasn't what shocked Lan. For ontop of the tower was the condor and next to the huge bird, was the unconscious body of Chisoa.

"Chisoa!" Lan turned to the voice behind him to see Dex, Maylu and Yai running from the inn.

_They must have followed me._ Thought Lan.

Dex was still yelling to his brother, trying to wake him up. After several more tries, Dex ran over to the tower, prepared to climb it. But the second he touched one of the metal rods, the condor let out a loud screech, before dive bombing towards Dex, its talons ready tot ear him apart.

"Dex! Look out!"

Dex looked up just in time to see the condor ready to scratch his eyes out. Letting go of the tower, he hit the ground, the condor just flying over him. As he got up, the condor landed back on the top of the huge tower and let out another screech.

The screech of the condor proved to be enough to wake up Chisoa, as he started to move. The first thing he saw when he awoke…was that he was high above the ground. He let out a scream as he grabbed onto the bar he was laying on, holding on for dear life.

"Big Brothar! Help me!"

"Don't worry Chisoa! I'll get you down from there! Just hold on!"

"O…okay…" everyone could tell that Chisoa was scared out of his wits.

"But how are we going to get him down without the condor attacking as?" asked Yai.

"There has to be a way Yai. We just have…" Lan was cut off as one of the animal trainers came running by screaming.

"What's wrong?" Lan asked her.

"The zookeeper! The zookeeper!"

"What is it? Is he being attacked?"

"No. He's controlling the animals from his office!"

For a moment, nobody said anything as what she just said started to sink in. After a few seconds, they responded with a group "WHAAAAT?????"

"All the animals in the zoo have chips in them to monitor health. He's sending signals to them to make them act like this!"

Maylu made a disgusted look. "Chip in the animals? That's sick!"

"He just started implanting the chips yesterday. Many of the employees didn't even know what he was doing."

"We have to stop him!"

"Lan, if we stop him, then the condor may leave Chisoa alone." Spoke up Megaman.

"Even more reason that this mad man should be stopped!" Lan turned to the animal trainer.

"Is there anyway for us to stop his transmission?"

"You'd have to jack into the zoo's main system. There's an outlet by the panda cage…in there." She pointed towards the zoo entrance.

"No matter how dangerous it may be, I have to end this. Let's go Megaman!"

"Right!"

Lan started to head back towards the zoo, when Dex yelled his name from behind him.

"What is it Dex?"

"Lan…You have to save Chisoa!"

Lan began to smile. "Don't worry Dex. I won't let you down." With that, he headed straight for the still chaotic zoo. Jumping over the one way turnstiles, he made his way into the zoo.

Lan first had to get past a group of gorillas, each having enough strength to snap him in two. Staying close to the empty cages, he slowly tiptoed his way past them. After that, he had to outrun a whole flock of dive bombing parrots and other multi-colored birds.

While still picking feathers from his clothes, he had to run past a whole group of snakes and duck under the huge elephant. It was slow going, but he eventually made it to the panda cage. The panda was one of the only animals that did not leave its cage, still chewing on some bamboo before taking his daily nap.

It didn't take him long to find the console, jutting out the side of the panda's cage. The protective covering had been knocked off by one or another of the rampaging animals, revealing the jack in port.

"I'm ready when you're ready Lan"

"Then let do this! Jack in! Megaman, Power up!"

In seconds, a blue light shot into the system, depositing Megaman into the zoo main computer. As he appeared, he let out a gasp. The whole system was designed to look like a forest, complete with towering trees, vines hanging from the branches and large variety of animal programs.

"Wow…this place is amazing."

"Sight see later. Right now we have to stop whatever's causing this and save Chisoa!"

Megaman nodded towards his operator, before starting his trek through the huge cyber forest. With each step, he heard the sounds of the cyber animals ring through the forest. The call of a cyber-parrot, the hiss of a cy-serpent, the…

Suddenly, a huge roar filled the forest. The roar was nothing like either of them had ever heard before, and they saw several of the animal programs head straight for the nearest hiding spot. It only lasted a minute or so, but that was al it took for almost every program in the area to run for the hills.

"What was that?"

"Whatever it is, it's probably what's controlling the system."

"Well, I just hope for one thing."

"What's that Lan?"

"That that thing's bark is worse then its bite."

**End Chapter**

* * *

Lame joke I know... Anyway, please review!


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